Clawhammer Banjo for the Complete Ignoramus (book w/ online audio) Spiral-bound – September 20, 2004

I'm learning the clawhammer style which is so versatile. I played 3 finger bajo for years and always wanted to play old time style which is better for a lot of reasons, but mostly for playing along with other musicians.I needed something to break that sound down to it's root and give me clear examples. This is it. It may be helpful for more advanced players, but I can't speak to that.Leaning a song with tabs that match up with an Mp3 track is extremely helpful. One track with just the melody and one with full clawhammer gives you the ability to learn the song .Highly recommend for learning the clawhammer style.

The book is really easy to follow with simple but descriptive instructions that also includes some useful history and context. The spiral format is great and makes using the book much easier.

This is a nice beginner book. I am disappointed that there are only 6 songs in Open G (gDGBD) tuning. Most songs are either in Double C (gCGCD) or Sawmill (gDGCD). Perhaps I'm lazy about wanting to keep a standard tuning.The front of the book is a good history lesson or how to. The back is your circle of fifths and how to play with a capo when jamming with other musicians. I do like the section that spells out each Tunings or Keys notes.Overall a helpful book with good information.

If you're like me, you bought a banjo and that big ole Earl Scruggs book and thought you were well on your way to becoming a bluegrass legend. For me, that was almost 20 years ago. I soon got frustrated by wearing fingerpicks, memorizing rolls, and everything sounding like a jumbled mess. I gave up, well, at least learned how to play chords in open G and started a band banging out all sorts of popular cover songs played at breakneck speed on a banjo. But even though I was playing a banjo, I couldn't play even the most basic banjo riffs, leaving myself and many people disappointed. I put the banjo down for about 10 years and am now starting over. This book is an awesome introduction to everything banjo, from the tunings, the style of play, old tyme music etc. So it's worthwhile to get a little background and history. But the best part is the music is easy to learn. Unlike Scruggs style (which is pretty virtuosic IMO) Clawhammer is easy to learn, difficult to master. So you will be playing in no time, and then adding embellishments as you get more comfortable. With this book, the accompanying audio samples (included on CD and also via a weblink), and one of many YouTube primers on clawhammer style, you're about a month or so away from playing some cool old tyme tunes around the campfire. But the best part of all is that plucking a banjo, in any way, any style, is just fun and relaxing.

I played electric bass for years, mainly classic rock and some jazz. After seeing the neighbors band playing old time music I decided that I could do that too. I ordered a deering goodtime banjo from Amazon and found it to be painfully more difficult to play than I had expected. I went to the local music store to buy more strings and the gentleman there, seeing I was new to the banjo decided to explain the finer points of playing the banjo. He went on to describe the various "rolls" I would need to learn. I explained that I was not playing bluegrass but rather I was interested in playing clawhammer style. He just sorta gave me a blank stare for a moment as if I were speaking some other language and then went on with his lecture about rolls.Clawhammer style is just not as common as bluegrass and consequently there seems to be fewer resources for those wanting to learn clawhammer. After a couple of days with my new banjo I had about given up and decided that the clawhammer banjo was a mysterious instrument that can only be played by a chosen few. After getting the ignoramus book I quickly began figuring the instrument out. Soon I was playing cripple creek, old molly hare and some of the other tunes in the book.This book is great if youre a complete novice because it assumes you've never picked up a banjo before and guides you through the whole process of tuning your banjo, explaining the parts of the banjo and getting you started playing the clawhammer lick as he calls it. The tabulature in the book is great too because the tunes are fairly familiar ones yet very very easy versions of them. My only other suggestion to potential buyers would be that you go to youtube and search for "banjo bum ditty". Theres a lesson on playing the bum ditty that will help you along.

This book is outstanding! It is great for beginner pickers or experienced players that want to learn this style of playing. I started out playing 3 finger learning from Earl Scruggs book but I wanted to expand my repertoire and I have heard great things about this book so I ordered it. I can't say whether or not the book helped me specifically with actually learning the technique of playing clawhammer because while I was waiting for the book to arrive I was on youtube watching instructional videos on clawhammer so once the book arrived I kinda just glanced through that part. So please read other reviews about the technical aspect that the book goes through.Once you understand the technique it's time to start putting it to use, so the tab is very clear and easy to read. This book comes with a cd which has 2 recordings of every single song! Most books I have that come with cd's only cover a few of the songs in the book so I thought that was pretty cool. And there a few different tunings which I believe a couple are reserved for clawhammer style songs which I thought was really fun to learn such as Double C and Sawmill. (I haven't come across the tunings in any other books I have and I have alot of banjo books!) My only minor complaints which shouldn't affect a buyer's decisions but more of a constuctive critique for the author is that I wish the song recordings had a fast tempo and a vocalist. It would be really fun to burn through some of these songs and sing along too! But I love this book and suggest anyone wanting to learn to bumditty BUY THiS BOOK!